Still Doubting Vaccines Efficacy? Doubt no More

Africa was declared polio free on August 25th, 2020, by World Health Organization [1]. To be specific, Africa succeeded in eradicating Wild Polio. This is a victory and a huge accomplishment for Public Health Professionals worldwide. Africa succeeded because the vaccination rate increased in various communities, thus creating the herd immunity. I have always been a huge fan of multi-sectoral collaborations. Public health is not a one man fight but a collective team of collaborators. This has not been an easy journey and it just goes to show that collaboration from all sectors is desperately needed in the fight against diseases. As a Public health advocate, it brought me so much joy and relieve to find out that Africa was certified free from Wild Polio. We are knocking down one disease at a time.

Even though we are all in celebratory and tap on the back mood, we should not lose focus. Public Health Professionals still has a lot of work to do. Persuading anti-vaxxers continues to be a challenging task for Public Health professionals. Diseases eradicated can easily make their way back if myths and misinformation’s on vaccines are not dispelled. As we are all aware, we still have a pandemic to worry about. Therefore, the same energy and efforts such as mass campaigns for vaccines, educating and raise awareness, used to eradicate Wild Polio in Africa, can be used to eradicate Corona Virus (COVID-19). Vaccines are safe, cheap, and effective and saves lives [2].

References

1. Global polio eradication initiative applauds WHO African region for wild polio-free certification. (2020). Retrieved 1 September 2020, from https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/25-08-2020-global-polio-eradication-initiative-applauds-who-african-region-for-wild-polio-free-certification

2. Vaccines Are Safe, Effective and Save Lives. (2020). Retrieved 1 September 2020, from https://www.aafp.org/news/media-center/kits/vaccines-are-safe-effective-and-save-lives.html